In 1982, when I started my radiology residency, doctors didn’t use computers. Most of us couldn’t type, but we did have some long-lost skills. We could flip a film onto a view box and shape a catheter using steam from a kettle. For greater reading efficiency, we used “alternators,” a wonderful contraption consisting of 25 or more glass panels driven by conveyor belts so that pre-hung films could be displayed in sequence. Nonetheless, alternators left plenty of room for improvement - they often mangled films, for example. Murphy’s Law mandated that the referring doctor on the phone always wanted to discuss the exam on the glass panel furthest away from display.
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